Newport Classical Announces Free Fall Community Concerts on September 8 and October 6
Newport Classical Community Concert in 2023, featuring Kinan Azmeh CityBand, at Newport Craft Brewing. Available in high resolution here.
Newport Classical Announces Fall Community Concerts
Free, Casual, and Welcoming to All
Presented by BankNewport
Fulton Chamber Players
Sunday, September 8, 2024 at 2:30pm
Newport Craft Brewing | 293 JT Connell Highway | Newport, RI
Bridge & Wolak
Sunday, October 6, 2024 at 2:30pm
Newport Classical Recital Hall | 42 Dearborn Street | Newport, RI
Information & Registration: www.newportclassical.org
Newport, RI – Newport Classical presents two fall Community Concerts featuring Fulton Chamber Players on Sunday, September 8, 2024 at 2:30pm at Newport Craft Brewing (293 JT Connell Highway) and Bridge & Wolak on Sunday, October 6, 2024 at 2:30pm at the Newport Classical Recital Hall (42 Dearborn Street). Audiences can look forward to these casual, engaging, and welcoming concerts – presented right in their own Newport neighborhoods. The performances are free and advanced registration is requested but not required for both performances.
On September 8, Fulton Chamber Players (Paul Hauer, violin; Amy Hess, viola; Addison Teng, violin) kick off the 2024-2025 Newport Classical Community Concerts Series at Newport Craft Brewing. This well-traveled, world-class ensemble aims to give back to communities while inspiring the next generation of musicians. They will bring a sweeping selection of classical music from Bach and Dvořák to Scott Joplin and George Gershwin to Newport Craft’s expansive lawn overlooking the Pell Bridge in a casual, family-friendly concert. Audiences are invited to take full advantage of this unorthodox classical concert with Newport Craft beer and bites available for purchase during the outdoor performance.
On October 6, Newport Classical welcomes the globe-trotting musical duo Bridge & Wolak (Michael Bridge, accordion, and Kornel Wolak, clarinet) to the Newport Classical Recital Hall in downtown Newport. The Canadian duo combine their shared love for classical, jazz, and world music into life-affirming concerts full of beauty, virtuosity, and humor. Their genre-fusing programs are sure to create a passionate and engaging musical adventure. It’s fun for the whole family in Newport Classical’s newly air-conditioned home venue.
These free concerts are generously presented as part of the BankNewport Community Concerts Series with additional support from the Rhode Island Foundation Newport County Fund and a Rhode Island Foundation Community Grant.
Up next, Newport Classical presents a free Children's Concert at the Newport County YMCA on Saturday, August 17 at 4pm, featuring WindSync performing Prokofiev's famous Peter and the Wolf, complete with costumes and choreography. Newport Classical’s Chamber Series opens this fall at the Newport Classical Recital Hall on September 13 with the “entrancing” (BBC Music Magazine) Merz Trio in an exploration of melody. On September 27, the Ariel Quartet, distinguished by its virtuosity and fiery performances, performs a concert of catharsis featuring music written in response to loss. Finnish-Cuban pianist Anton Mejias brings the US premiere of composer Philip Lasser’s response to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier to Newport on October 18. On November 1, baritone Markel Reed, known for his appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, sings the music of Brahms, Margaret Bonds, Terence Blanchard, and more. Cellist Seth Parker Woods, celebrated by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace,” explores three centuries of music with Bach’s contemplative Sarabandes as a point of departure and return in his solo cello concert on November 15. Newport Classical’s Chamber Series continues through June 2025.
For Newport Classical’s complete concert calendar, visit www.newportclassical.org/concerts
About Newport Classical:
Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.
Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc., Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 55 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.
Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”
In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.